A a Rangers fan I greatly applaud both signings in that we have gotten stronger & younger down the centeer of the ice by a strong playmaking center in Gomez (27 yrs old) for Jagr to play with & by adding one off the great clutch goal scoring players in league history in Drury (31 years old).

But also as a Rangers fan, I have to constantly remind myself that MSG is the Elephant's Graveyard of Former All-Stars where once great players go to cash their paychecks & fade away. I can only hope that this is not the case this time.

Yesterday is already being referred to as "Black Sunday" in Buffalo, so that probably tells you all you need to know about how they feel about things (you could probably extend that to Devil fans as well).

The Rangers could be screwed if someone comes along and offers Henrik Lundqvist an offer sheet (he's an RFA) with an absurd amount of money on it, but all I've read on that is that he wants to stay in NY, so that may not be as much of a problem.

The Buffalo News points something out though, as a lot of Sabre fans are up in arms over a so-thought lack of "loyalty" from Briere and Drury. The Sabres didn't make any offers to either until just a couple of days ago. There was Sabre-mania in Western New York this season, and the thought is that if the team had made offers during the season, both would have re-upped.

For the record, the Sabres offered Briere 5 years/25 million (He signed for 8 years/52 million), and Drury got a 5 year/30 million offer, and he signed with the Rangers for 5/35.

(edited by kwik on 2.7.07 1103)For reasons of creative incompetence, this space will be left blank. Advertising opportunities are avaliable though!!! Contact (Number removed due to pending litigation) for details!

It really does suck to be Buffalo. I don't know if their idea is that they have so many talented forwards that they can just keep it rollin' or if by being unable to concentrate on one or the other they lost both or what. But that is devastating.

Similarly devastating for New Jersey, but Lou Lamoriello is the, uh, devil, so he eventually had this coming.

I'm assuming it rules to be Philadelphia. New GM whatshisname completed overhauled that team between the trading deadline and day 1 of UFA, largely by appropriating a bunch of wayward Predators. Briere, Timmonen, Hartnell, Lupul, Smith, Biron, Coburn, Upshall, and Parent is almost half a new roster, and the only things of worth they gave up were Pitkannen and old & busted P Forsberg.

As a Ranger fan, I'm over the moon. Not only are these two talented players who've both won the Cup (Gomez twice), from my vantage point they're also good guys with the right attitude.

As long as we can keep Lundqvist and our other big RFA, Sean Avery, who was absolutely crucial to the Rangers' good run at the end of the season, I'm very optimistic about the season. Let's Go Rangers!

I'm happy with the Leafs' signings so far. Resigning Battaglia was a good move, and Toronto clearly had to work fast to snap up one of the top FAs (Blake) in the first-day madness. I think that seventh or eighth seed is ours this year!

It's not just you, that really is the nature boy.The 'canes announcer used to ring announce for WCW, and had Ric do that bit for him, as he is from that part of the world. (Not sure where I read this, so no link - sorry.)